CAG on coal ‘governance problem’: PMEAC

“I think it relates to the past…It is really a governance problem and I am sure CIL (Coal India Ltd) and Coal Ministry are paying special attention,” said Rangarajan.

The statement comes in the wake of the government auditor in its report tabled in Parliament on August 17 stating that a huge gain of Rs 1.86 lakh crore is likely to accrue to private firms,including Tata Steel,Essar Power,JSPL and Hindalco from allocation of 57 coal blocks without competitive bidding.

Rangarajan in an interview to the Rajya Sabha TV said that government was taking all possible measures to enhance coal output and even the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was serious on the front.

“The PMO is also paying attention to improve the production and output of coal and as the coal production increases it will have favourable effect not only on current generation of power but also on capacity creation because capacity creation in the power sector depends upon firms assured coal availability.”

Rangarajan exuded confidence that coal output would increase in the current year with a number of measures being taken to augment production.

He said as a result “the mining sector will also have a positive growth rate in the current year as against the negative growth rate in the last year.”

He also added the government was according priority to sectors like coal,power and road.

“Coal,we are seeing revival,power will automatically improve as coal improves,” he added.

The domestic coal production was recorded at 540 million tonnes (MT) against the demand of 696 MT.

Coal India,which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic output has recorded 436 MT last fiscal against the revised target of 447 MT.